SIM course - Orgnaise for Max effectiveness

It's term break time again and for me it's get away time. Time to retreat to SIM to go for some courses to recharge myself and also hopefully learn news things.

Those of you who get into my room will know how messy it can be on top of my desktop....both the virtual and the real desktop. My filing system is also top of the scale...if you count from bottom up. Went for some time management / stress managemnt courses before in SIM, and each time I picked up some tips here and there which suits my style of sorting management. I guess it is also easier for one just to do abit of small changes at one time so the the transition is less painful. I am only human too.

So during this course I have again forced myself to pick up points of trigger to make changes for the good. Afew things that I jolted down for actions are :

1. Improve my organistion of home document filing system.
Split the inbox to Action / pending info / to File (esp insurance / warrenty / tax etc)
status : DONE!! I have done that straight after end of Day 1 as soon as I reach home.

2. It's about time to do spring cleaning on my wardrobe.
Wife mentioned a few shirts getting old and have slight torn parts...So I guess I need to donate such away and time to put on some new ones on the shelve(collecting dust).
Status : maybe tonight...but definitely b4 yerm start so I can wear new clothing for the new term :).

3. Kick start CL3363 specialty Chemical animation for e-Learning.
Contacted XN during day 1 tea break and very luckily to get her agree to work for me on the animations. Will see her next Monday for more detail briefing and see if she wants to work on the easy mode (WINKS) or tougher mode (FLASH).

4. To update my CL2308 puzzle pool. Found afew nice quotable quotes and will be using them during my CL2308 lecture breaks. Also, have also thought of a opening activities for the 1st lecture to ask the students to keep quiet and control their mouth.

5. Also thought of a starting actitvity for 1st tutorial. It's about the aware ness of internal problem vs the external problems. External we cannot control..why bother to be upset about? Internal ones - be aware- CHANGE!!

6 Have been asked to come up with a 1 hour magic show for school or private function purpose. Unfortunately my pasasion for magic has taken a dip recently...addicted to football management games so though there is 2 new tricks I learnt...I never really go out showing to others openly or to practise much for perfection.

Use the tools provided and list out the steps / thoughts / areas of concern / what if..... for this mission. I think I have a better idea now and it's just need a kick start to get the whole thing going. At least I feel more comfortable about the whole exercise now. Yes I can do it.

7 Also use the Bali trip in June as a discussion item during the course.
" Parents forbid students to join Bali graduation tour due to safety / security reason. What can be done??"

Here are the feedback from the course mates (who act as advisor) :-
Call parents individually to find out more
Assure them to be alert during tour
Nice to call but don't put pressure on parents
tell them I also bring my family along
Check if their child is the only child.
Suggest alternative locations like langkawi / phuket / etc

I wonder if I really should start making calls....

8. Last, but in fact the most interesting aprt of the course, is that during Day 2, a yound ldy participant approached me and say: " Do you know I am your students in NYP?"
"IS IT??!! Hmmm.....you must be from the pioneer batch CPT student!!"
"yes..."

The pioneer bunch are actually my seniors (they come to NYP 1 year before I do). I only have chance to teach them CL3301 lectures. And if you are the lucky ones that avoided me in tutorial / lab / PBP...then it was actually quite possible that u complete the CPT course without leaving much of an impreession in my mind.

Especially if you are not very naughty or not very smart or not having a same name as a monkey...or ape.

So it's a really small world and I have link up with yet another of the lost pioneers. Lucky I never doze off and snore away during the seminar.

9. I will also set up a new incoming paper file system...will ask for another 3 extra trays and better file the incoming papers. hopefully with this my desktop will look much better...

Bali Tour update

After checking and clarifying with 6 travel agents, I think the latest offer from KangTai is the most worth package:

$538 4D 3N in 5* Hotel / SQ flight / Full meals / 2 full day guided tour which covers Tanah Lot, Kintamani and Ubud. Only need to pay the Bali airport tax when departing which is about $25.

This is an open tour no minimum participant required, but of course the downside is that there will be othes in the group travelling together...which I think should be fine. All of us are the to have fun isn't it?? No conflict of interest.

So registration is still open. We as a group will deposit on around Apr 2nd week. So far the number is about 14...with another 6 pending friends/parent/leave/exam issues....

I am an optimist and really hope that they all can make it!!...if they really want to go. Too many times this year GTO I received interested response and not sure they try not to say no straight into my face and gave me false hope...in the end quite afew actually finally say not going for 1 reason or an other.

Yes perhaps this year I am abit overly ambitious to choose Bali. Cost / security / work / parents forced quite afew out of the tour. Maybe we try somewhere cheaper next year...BKK/HK ??
But Bali is really nice and I always wanted to be there with my family and students / friends.

So for those of you still have a slim chance of making it...you actually can thinkabout it for another 2 weeks. Then we really really have to deposit $300 each liao. Let me know if you can work thorugh the hurdles and can join us. Good luck!!

GT 2008 -- Jun 12-15 BALI !!! JOIN NOW!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the moment that I have been waiting for...Graduation Tour 2008 !!! Jun 12-15 (Thur-Sun). Details are taking shape and is in the final stage of itenery planning and price comparison between 4 agents. I hope to finalise everything by latest next week.

It does not helped my planning as this is the year of inflation. Prices go up and up...in order to keep the cost low, I have decided to go by budget airline and drop the hotel to a 3 star rating tyoe. This I hope, will make it abit more affordable to more students and hopefully some will not turn away from GT 2008 just because of the cost.

Here is the tentative tour plan :

Departure date / time : 12 Jun Thur / 7pm
Check in and party starts!!

Day 2 : - suggest we go for full day tour (see item 1) and go town shopping + dinner in the evening. (As usual 1 Dinner on me!!)

Day 3 :- Day time maybe go river rafting / spa or bunjee or just play games in hotel
pm go for 5 hour tanah lot tour (this is highly recommanded).
Go for sunset cruise

last day :- Morning : free n easy - check out around noon.
Lunch - go for roast pork lunch!! if u want go for last minute shopping
Dinner u may proceed to have seafood at the beach. Me nad Christof will eat maggie mee in hotel lobby. (Broke liao after the dinner before)

Departure time is 8pm.

Arrival date / time : 15 Jun Sun / 10pm
(4D3N - but actually 3 full days)

Daily breakfast provided.
Cost : $530 inclusive of airport taxes / transport / insurance. Cost may still vary....be aware.

The cost above also include 2 of the following :
1) Full day kintamani / Ubud our with lunch
2) Sunset cruise
3) tanah Lot tour
4) River rafting
5) Bali Dance festival n dinner
6) Jimbaran beach seafood Dinner+ lobster
7) Bunjee jumping
8) 2 hour spa

Any extra optional tour is about $50 extra...trying to bargain for lower for more people.

Hope that the above are exciting and attractive to you all. Now it's time for you to do your part...please register and let me know if you are going to make it. Official booking will only start 2 weeks later but best to let me know if how many can commit within the next 14 days.

See U all in Bali!!

Rare outing @ midnight

It was 5.20pm and I was shuting down the computer....suddenly realised that Ah Meng have sent me a mail titled : "for those who can't sleep at night". Originally i thought it must be a ghost story or scary stuff (cos we just discussed some of these in the tea-break). But then it actually turn out to be a nice surprise.

SWENSEN PROMO AFTER MIDNIGHT!!!

I typed "see u all at Swensen tomorrow midnight." and left for home. They must thought I am joking...

Once reach home I was greeted with another nice piece of news...son did rather well in Science CA...highest in class!!. So I guess that 3 hours of show and tell before the DnD evening did him alot of good. Now reproduction , hopefully, will also become his pet subject, like like me...hahahahah.

Told my wife about the Swensen promo, she was in a good mood and did not object violently so I guess the outing is now ON.

Put up a message in my MSN...and soon I have queries from quite afew people.

"why?" - why not? / Just because....
"taxi expansive!" - Ok I sweeten it abit by offerring free coffee + snacks, if you stay in
Clementi / Bt batok / Yew Tee I can even drive you home.
"Need to work next day" - me too! / sleep abit during the evening lor
"wah $20 taxi for $5 free ice cream not worth leh" - friendship is priceless / yes I am crazy
"no energy after 12 midnight" - I am the reverse / dun tell me that until u reach 44

In the end...after numerous MSN conversations...7 finally confirmed coming out at midnight. Didn't know there is so much wired Owls like me in school!!

Look...if you don't do it now...do you think you can have more time / energy / oppurtunity to do it later...with the same friends?? Answer is quite clear...NEVER!!

Eating that free ice cream is probably just an excuse to something different for me. i hope they dunt come just because of the free ice cream too. It's means more than that to me. And i think it;s fun and worth loosing 2-3 hours of sleep over it.

In the end it was a frank and open 2 hours of chit chat. We talk about life, work experiences.Somehow i manage to pass that 2 hours without yawning for cooffee input. Drive them back to their desired destinations and reached home 2.45am and sleep at 3am.

Will I do it again...if there is another promo?? U bet!!